Apple Licenses Swiss Railway Clock Design for iOS

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Shin-san

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I normally would have taken something like that as a compliment, but as patent-crazy tech companies are these days, especially Apple, I think it was good idea for the Swiss Federal Railways to make their move. Otherwise, the design might have ended up as a copyright of Apple
 

back_by_demand

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Funny, if it was the other way round they would go "thermonuclear" (as Jobs put it) and try and get a worldwide sales ban, no amount of licensing or money would be enough
...
But seeing as it is Apple, people always cave and take the money, someone needs to dig in theor heels and say "No, get your own f**king design"
 

AndrewMD

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[citation][nom]jojesa[/nom]Apple could not come up with a clock design of their own! Wow! Mind-blowing![/citation]

Ever heard of inspired art? Keeping with your logic, even if I was to take a picture of a well known landmark, you would consider it an infringement... Mostly likely the person in charged of the clock app liked the design and felt it was commonplace.

However, Apple and SFR came to an agreement.
 

sacre

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[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]Funny, if it was the other way round they would go "thermonuclear" (as Jobs put it) and try and get a worldwide sales ban, no amount of licensing or money would be enough...But seeing as it is Apple, people always cave and take the money, someone needs to dig in theor heels and say "No, get your own f**king design"[/citation]

So you'd rather just have them accept their wrong doings and change their clock design then make hundreds of thousands to millions for simply using your design?

Are you that screwed up?

I'd sell, so as long as the design was still noted that it was made by me. Then I get my design spread across the world AND I make a lot of money.
 

CaedenV

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for now they will licence the clock design, But you know that when they are on their last year of the contract they will replace the clock with one that they design themselves which will look beautiful, but will be 5 minutes behind every Thursday, and will choose a random time zone when outside of the US. There will be a fix for these time keeping problems, but it will only be available on an iOS update that is only available for their newest phone so that people will have to upgrade.

It is the Apple way!
 

nebun

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talk about greed....it's a simple design....just imagine if all the shoe companies were to sue each-other because all the shoes look the same
 

TheCapulet

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[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]i stand by this. its a clock. i see nothing wrong with it at all, no mater how it looks. i dont like apple, but i think this is stupid.[/citation]
Nope, nothing wrong with blatantly stealing others work at all.
 
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Apple we take what we like and own everything else, the National Socialist party of the tech world
 

invlem

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[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]i stand by this. its a clock. i see nothing wrong with it at all, no mater how it looks. i dont like apple, but i think this is stupid.[/citation]

I don't know what people see as negative here, the end result is exactly what should have happened. There's taking prior work as inspiration and making your own, then there's direct copying of the design with absolutely no attempt to make it your own. Which is exactly what was done here, no attempt was made on the artists behalf to make the design different.

ts a perfect replica of the original, so yes, "its a clock", how does phrase make it any different than "its an iPod"?
 
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apple continues it's great tradition of buying, copying or stealing. way to go... by the way, if they don't make the hardware, don't assemble anything themselves, copy designs, and only modify unix (iOS), what DO they make? their advertisments are great tho
 

wildkitten

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[citation][nom]house70[/nom]Funnier thing is, Mondaine is exclusive licensee of the SBB clock. I don't know if this is the end of it.[/citation]
Of course what's interesting that I see no one pointing out is the fact that Apple didn't whine about this. I doubt seriously if Apple executives plotted to try to steal the Swiss Railway clock design. Likely what happened is the person who wrote the app saw a picture of the clock and used it.

I'm no fan of Apple, but rather odd how they didn't start saying you can't patent a round design with some markings on it. Instead, they said "Yep, you're right, we screwed up and here's your money".

You are right that it appears Mondaine is the exclusive licensee, however, that is a matter between SBB and Mondaine, not between Apple and Mondaine. SBB owns the design and if they licence it out in violation to an existing agreement with Mondaine, that is not Apple's fault.
 

bustapr

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i still cant understand why governments let apple get away with stealing something first, then licensing/buying it off with their infinitely deep pockets. goes to show that in this world law means shit if you have enough money.
 
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